"Fucking Americans," yelled a man with a heavy Indian accent. "They killed me one off of my IS."

"They always seem to do that," another man agreed with a British accent. "It's only a matter of time before I call mines in and wreck havoc upon these gits."

"Watch your left," the first man warned. "Sniper in the grassy knoll."

The man breathed heavily through his mouthpiece and multiple bangs went off. "Got 'em."

Person number one, age 28, was a male named Raj Harold, born on January 8, 1996. Currently resides in Madrid. Person number two was a male named Richard Harrison, age 26, born on February 8, 1998. Currently resides in London. Conversation, via Omega Party Chat system, began at approx. 12:02 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. Ends at 12:23 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. Flagged for notice. Mentioning of trigger words, "blown-up" and "fucking Americans" and "coordinated strike" among others.

Daniel reached for his cup of coffee and took a sip as he continued to listen to the two way recorded conversation between Raj and Richard, who were playing The Call to Serve on the Omega gaming console. Daniel found listening to rage induced video game chatter between young adults on a gaming system the greatest waste of his time. He guaranteed that every person who said they were going to harm the person on the other end of the O-Helm was simply talking out of their asses.

Daniel usually found himself amused when listening to these exchanges. It always followed the same order. The friends are excited to start up a game after a long day at school or work. Then they get into a lobby and do great the first game. They spank the other team with ease, called in all sorts of insurances, and rained hell as if they were gods. Then the next game they found someone who was of equal skills, or even better than them, and that was when a condition that was prominent in gamers flared up—raging.

Half the conversations Daniel listened to were a result of the terrible illness. It was highly infectious and could only be stopped by either avoiding online gaming altogether or having better reflexes. The people who raged were the people who liked to think they were not "noobs." A noob is the outcast of the online gaming experience. They are simply put, bad at the game. They are the untouchables in the gaming caste system. One does not associate themselves with a noob if they wish to maintain their ranking. The Call to Serve was all about who could get the most kills while dying the least. Thus, a high Kill-to-Death ratio, or K/D, is important to ragers. A K/D to ragers is their resume that shows other online gamers how much experience they have at the game, and how great they are. A noob on one's team ruins one's K/D, and thus obliterates a rager's resume.

Thus, a rager does everything in his power to avoid playing with and becoming a noob. When a rager finds himself against another person who was better than him, he immediately calls the person a "try-hard." Ragers hate try-hards because they make ragers into noobs. Thus a rager will call anyone threatening his position in the online gaming caste system as a "try-hard."

Now the terminology of the three words (rager, noob, and try-hard) varies depending on the group of people, but overall these terms are solid across the field of online gaming. One group may call a "try-hard" a "super-sweaty," but if you mention the word "try-hard" they will make the connection between the two. Daniel found the various terminologies for noobs, "try-hards," and ragers very hilarious.

But his job wasn't supposed to be funny.

Daniel was pulled back into the conversation when he overheard Richard activating a special ability. "Just resurrected and killed the camper."

The mentioning of the word "resurrected" brought back a bitter memory. The last time he heard that word (outside of CTS of course) was when he was seven. He was at his father's funeral wake. His parents were Catholic. So they had a priest celebrate mass before the burial. Some families have a wake days before the burial. Others have it minutes before the burial. Daniel's mother opted to have the wake and the burial within hours of each other. It was at the wake that Father Ryan, the celebrant of the mass for that day, gave a sermon.

Daniel gave the man credit; he had to deliver a reason why something so terrible like this could have happened in a world created by an all-loving God. Although this was the most common accusation against the Catholic Church, it was one that was not easily answered.

But Daniel could've sworn Father Ryan came close to satisfactorily answering the question when he opened up his sermon in the midst of a depressed miasma that occupied the room. "The world is not perfect because of us. We've seen an example of this just recently. The world is stained by sin, sin that has grown from the seed of freedom. But does that make freedom bad? Should we abolish freedom because a few people abuse it? God doesn't think so. He allows us to keep our free will because he loves us so, but it is his love for us that also leads us inadvertently to our downfall. Daniel Mason Senior was a respectable man...he was a good man. Why must the good die young? Why would God be so cruel as to steal him away from us?

"Have you ever considered this—it may sound a bit rash but bare with me. Is it that we... are too selfish and clingy... that... we aren't able to let go of our loved ones so that they can live in harmony with their creator in a perfect world? Does the phrase, 'Misery loves company,' apply to us in this miserable world tainted with evil? Daniel Senior is now living in a universe where death will not touch him, nor will evil, pain, greed, gluttony etc. God will forever nourish him. Are we sad because we are not there with him? Are we angry because he has escaped this tainted world and is now living forever in peace and happiness?"

Father Ryan spoke besides a picture of Daniel's father. He was smiling in the photo as he wore a navy blue suit with the initials FDNY stitched into the fabric. "One may say that we weren't ready to let go of him, but when will we ever be ready to let go of our loved ones? We are conjoined to those we love. Sadly, death must be the one that separates us. It is through this separation that we can encounter a healthier, fuller life in the next world. After all, this life is but a preparation for the riches of the next."

Father Ryan glanced at the picture for a brief second in a motion of ending his speech. Then, upon staring at the photograph, a lightbulb went off in his head and he shuffled back towards the mic. "I've gotten the chance to speak and get to know Daniel. I remember people telling me how much of a crazy fellow he was for bringing a suitcase to work when he was a fireman. When I asked him why he did such a thing Daniel responded, 'A man's gotta keep his lunch some place, right?'"

A couple of people chuckled in the crowd at the memory.

Father Ryan continued. "But Daniel didn't just die innocently—he died a hero. While people were fleeing to safety he ran towards the chaos. While people screamed at the smoke billowing from the towers, he was marching up the stairs, yelling and banging at all the doors on each floor to make sure that no one was left behind. Don't get me wrong; the people fleeing were not cowards. They were surviving, but Daniel wasn't just surviving—he was serving. He was serving the survival needs of his fellow countrymen and women."

"People may come up to the Mason family members and constantly hold their hands mumbling, 'I'm sorry for your loss.'..." He turned towards Daniel and his mother, who was dabbing her eyes with a tissue while Daniel's arms interlocked around hers, afraid of losing each other like they lost Mr. Mason.

"But Daniel Mason Senior was not lost. He was sacrificed. There is a difference. You see what Christ did was a sacrifice. A sacrifice is a decision you make. Loss is a decision made for you. With the building in flames, Daniel charged ahead, knowing the risks he was taking. Like Christ, Daniel went into the fire—and came out in the resurrection."

Daniel couldn't help but smile at the memory of that last line. His father was like Christ. Although Daniel had fallen a bit far from the Catholic tree, he would always shed a tear of joy that a Catholic priest compared his father to the savior Jesus Christ. For a Catholic, that was the highest compliment you could give a person.

Daniel was drawn back into the conversation when he heard the mentioning of London. "Did ya know that the map Clock Tower is basically set in London beneath Big Ben?"

Raj agreed. "Yeah and that map Ruins, is basically the Royal Palace of Madrid, only in ruins."

Raj and Richard exchanged a laugh at some hidden joke that Daniel was clearly not in the loop of.

Then Raj chuckled. "It's funny how CTS can predict the future."

Richard snickered. "All they need is a map of downtown Chicago blown-up and in ruins, and they'll be more accurate than the bloody Oracle of Delphi."

A notification beep chimed through the mic and Richard stopped snickering. He moved about so much it shook the microphone. He was probably reaching for his phone, Daniel thought.

Richard laughed again. "Oh wait, it looks like it already happened."

Raj added, "And the coordinated strike commences. One down, two to go."

The transmission stopped there and Daniel checked the time. It was nearly 12:45 P.M. and he pulled out his phone to see what Richard meant by "it already happened."

Sure enough he had little trouble finding images and newsreel of a downtown Chicago Hospital in ruins.